Are you a leader looking to boost productivity and creativity among your employees? Do what some of the world’s most innovative companies do—encourage employees to work on passion-projects that support the company’s goals. This will help employees spend more time in a flow state, where they are completely immersed in the task at hand, not worrying about the end result, and performing at their peak.
A Flow State massively increases productivity, creativity, and learning speed at work (500%, 430%, 490% respectively – studies from the Flow Research Collective).
Interestingly, most of us already spend 5% of our workday in flow. Just increase this time to at least 15% (study from McKinsey).
Here are some examples of how some of the world’s most innovative companies are doing this:
Google’s 20% project let employees spend 20% of their time on personal projects. The policy was designed to encourage employees to pursue their own interests and generate new ideas that would benefit the company. Google’s early success was attributed to this policy – Gmail, Google News, AdSense, Google Maps.
Other companies that have similar policies to Google’s 20% project include:
-
3M – The company’s “15% Rule” encourages employees to spend 15% of their time working on projects that interest them, with the understanding that some of these projects may eventually become products or services that the company can sell.
-
Atlassian – The company has a “FedEx Day” program, which allows employees to take a day off from their regular work and focus on a personal project.
-
Cisco – The company has a “Cisco Innovation Culture” program, which encourages employees to spend time working on projects that align with the company’s strategic goals.
-
Dell – The company has a “Dell Innovation Fund” program, which provides funding for employees’ personal projects that align with the company’s goals.
-
Adobe – The company has a “Kickbox” program, which provides employees with a kit of tools and resources to develop their own ideas into a product
-
Procter & Gamble – The company has a “Connect + Develop” program, which encourages employees to collaborate with external partners and develop new products or services.
-
IDEO – My favorite example. The company regularly puts out calls for “white space projects.” These are tasks that employees from any department can work on together, and they can be as different as event planning or data visualization. Ideo partner Duane Bray once said, “They’re meant to get people involved in what they’re passionate about, not necessarily what they’re best at.”
To sum up, you can increase the flow state experience for your employees by simply giving them more projects/tasks they enjoy doing, in the way they enjoy doing them… That is, allow them to function more with … Drive + Authenticity.
Start small, try this one change, and your team will thank you!
